Sunday, March 30, 2008

At the Shun Ten I found this pot by Peter Krebs and immediately knew tha this was the final pot for my quince. It is very difficult to find the right pot if it is over a certain size. This is a huge pot.

Sunday, March 23, 2008

This one looked the worst from the batch. But it was only because of the sick looking foliage wihch was was too long. And then it was in the wrong pot in the wrong position. After an hour's work it looks much better. It would improve still a lot if I wired it now. But after repotting and shortening the needles this tree now needs a couple of years to regain strength. This is a keeeper. Thre are not so many Austrian black pines of this quality and size (only 40 dcm long!) around.

This one has already been styled nicely a few aears ago but then was neglected for a few years. I got this in a trade and refurbished it in an hour. It is only 35 cm high, which is considered to be extremely small for this species. I like it very much, it is a keeper for sure.

The Austrian black pine (Pinus nigra Austriaca) is not a rare tree in southern Eruope. But it is very difficult to find a tree in nature that has talent to become a bonsai. And then the foliage is very long and they say that the species requires a big bonsai to look credible. A shohin size of any quality is an extrem rarity and thought to be impossible. A couple of days ago I managed to get this in a trade. Now this is only 18 cm high, well within shohin size. But as one can see the foliage is decently short. After an hour's work the foliage was much shorter and the tree looks like it will become a prominent shohin Austrian black pine. I think that this is a precious gem.

The fungus is there since 15 years. So often we have a discussion about folks being paranoid about fungus on their trees. Here you see: the overwhelming majority of fungi are harmless. This one lives in old wood and does no harm to the live parts. Or at least did not so in fifteen years.